color=#808080]"We've got something of an important item with us. Not exactly valuable, but important. I've got a meeting with Jack set tomorrow, but does anybody else have somebody trustworthy to take care of it before then?"[/color]

"Y'know, if you're tired of carrying it, Koa could put it in his Magic Pokeball. I mean, it would probably fit, right Koa?"

Well if the... magic, pokeball doesn't work out, we could always put it in my shop. I can't promise people won't look through it but if it isn't valuable, then they should leave it alone.

The forest would be coolest for me, but there would be some cool ones in the mines, too. I'm good either way

Thanks to Arch Lich Burns for the avatar, and Mnementh for the mustache.

Ã”Ã‡Â£Shoot the dictator and prevent the war? But the dictator is merely the tip of the whole festering boil of social pus from which dictators emerge; shoot him and there'll be another one along in a minute. Shoot him too? Why not shoot everyone and invade Poland?Ã”Ã‡Ã˜
Ã”Ã‡Ã² Terry Pratchett

"We've tried drawing it into a pokeball, it doesn't work. It's... Another of the items our opponents were trying to drill into." (That drilling was in the water-video the others saw, right? Not an intermission?)

Alex glances at the newcomer, nodding slightly, "I'm Alex Sparo. I'm guessing everyone trusts you? As for your shop... I'd prefer to keep it out of sight, so that the people who may want to take it can't, but it may be better than carrying a big sack around."

My characters:
Tugs Tails, the goblin that was sort of a trapper and wears a bear's tail at his neck, for some reason - Lair of the Mountain King (Run by Thinks)
Alex Sparo, A city boy, poor of sight, who has learned to manipulate people and make the most of what he, and others, have - Trinity Isles (Run by Mort)
Mehriv Turajin, a Noble Dragonborn Sorcerer sent from his clan because he wasn't dragony enough. - The Wandering Archipelago (Run by Thinks)

My characters:
Tugs Tails, the goblin that was sort of a trapper and wears a bear's tail at his neck, for some reason - Lair of the Mountain King (Run by Thinks)
Alex Sparo, A city boy, poor of sight, who has learned to manipulate people and make the most of what he, and others, have - Trinity Isles (Run by Mort)
Mehriv Turajin, a Noble Dragonborn Sorcerer sent from his clan because he wasn't dragony enough. - The Wandering Archipelago (Run by Thinks)

Running a hand across his face, Alex suppresses a grimace, "Wow, nobody has a sense of subtlety, huh? Yes, we met her. I'll tell you more once we're out of the city, where nobody's going to shout secrets better left hidden out to the entire city."

Pausing Alex frowns slightly, "As another note, I don't want this to sound weird even though it is, but... I started seeing auras while we were in there. So if I start describing things nobody else is seeing, that'll be it. We're fairly certain I'm not just crazy... On the bright side, I can get a general idea of whether a person is hostile or not, and sometimes it's a bit of a representation of their personality too. Or maybe it always is and it can just be too abstract for me to really understand anything from it."

My characters:
Tugs Tails, the goblin that was sort of a trapper and wears a bear's tail at his neck, for some reason - Lair of the Mountain King (Run by Thinks)
Alex Sparo, A city boy, poor of sight, who has learned to manipulate people and make the most of what he, and others, have - Trinity Isles (Run by Mort)
Mehriv Turajin, a Noble Dragonborn Sorcerer sent from his clan because he wasn't dragony enough. - The Wandering Archipelago (Run by Thinks)

"Wow, nobody has a sense of subtlety, huh? Yes, we met her. I'll tell you more once we're out of the city, where nobody's going to shout secrets better left hidden out to the entire city."

"Relaaaax. Nobody's here but us! And besides, that's not even the craziest thing we found..."

"As another note, I don't want this to sound weird even though it is, but... I started seeing auras while we were in there. So if I start describing things nobody else is seeing, that'll be it. We're fairly certain I'm not just crazy... On the bright side, I can get a general idea of whether a person is hostile or not, and sometimes it's a bit of a representation of their personality too. Or maybe it always is and it can just be too abstract for me to really understand anything from it."

"Seems like weird stuff is happening to all of us... Makes an amount of sense, you do have wings after all. Oh, part of my aura stuff is sending thoughts to people and reading thoughts other people are trying to send to me. I'm still working out how most of it works."

My characters:
Tugs Tails, the goblin that was sort of a trapper and wears a bear's tail at his neck, for some reason - Lair of the Mountain King (Run by Thinks)
Alex Sparo, A city boy, poor of sight, who has learned to manipulate people and make the most of what he, and others, have - Trinity Isles (Run by Mort)
Mehriv Turajin, a Noble Dragonborn Sorcerer sent from his clan because he wasn't dragony enough. - The Wandering Archipelago (Run by Thinks)

Haley turns around, already calling out to meet Alex and... Finds a definitely not Alex. Just... Sounds a lot alike? The fellow is of a similarly scrawny build, though completely dressed up in a blue janitor's outfit, carrying a cleaning setup behind him.

"Alex..? Ah, sorry, must have confused ya miss... Don't pay attention to me, I'm just here to get the maze ready for the next participant..."

"Go on ahead, I'll just... Fix this mess."

Drake

Before current events, Drake decides to experiment more with the staff, finally deciding to try and grab ahold of it... He instantly takes 2000 damage, and dies. Trying to focus on being as god friendly as he can, and, for one moment, it seems like it's working..? Just as fast, though, there's the building sensation of a headache, that quickly intensifies in actual physical pain... As he loses a tick of hit points and, presumably, drops the staff to prevent any more!

There's something... Funny about it, however. For in that brief moment he was holding it, he figured out that the staff is active- He could use it, if he really wanted to... But at the same time, it was also hurting him..? If it was going to hurt him to try and prevent him from using it, then why not prevent him from using it outright..? There's something fishy about it which he can't quite put his finger on... But, he can still figure out what he can from the staff regardless now- And whether or not it'd be worth to use it...

The mirror's eye
Legendary artifact
While wielding the following passive effects are active:
-User gains teleporter 5 movement capability
-Blend in: User is considered invisible as long as he's not performed a standard or hostile action within vision, or the user wishes to dismiss this effect.

Special effect: gateway. As a full action, one can open a one-way gateway leading TO the staff- The start location is unknown...

Following curse applies:
CURSE OF REJECTION: User takes 1 tick of hit point damage at the end of his turn. Following this damage, the user may immediately drop the staff as a free action.

Izzy, Koa, Drake, Irene, Bruce

Conversation turns to various subjects... Partially as to where to begin their hunt, partially about the mystery sack/box.

"Hmm... an abandoned mine? You think there's some dark or ghost types in there? We should look for some, what with Grimm and all."

"Oh yeah, definitely. After all, everyone in Murkoff knows the story about the lost miners in that place... They say that a foreman and his group of six men were deep in the mine, following a rich vein, when an explosion higher in the mine caused the tunnels to collapse. Trapped underground, the miners were presumed to have died, and rescue efforts were slow... It took months for them to get down there, and when they did, the sight was horrible. The miners had been left in a tiny air pocket, fighting among each other to survive, cannibalizing upon each other... Not that it mattered, for all of them had perished in the end."

"And now they say the soul of this tormented foreman still walks the mines... Looking to drag anyone else that enters it into the same, early, unearned grave."

An uncomfortable silence falls for a moment, Jeremy first to actually break it. "W-Wow... Is that why the mine got shut down..?"

"Of course not ya dolt, none of that is real- It's just a scary story they tell children to keep them away from there. The mine shut down cuz they hit bedrock or something, and the costs went too high to try and keep the whole project going. So for ghosts... I dunno, probably? They tend to hang out in caves, right?"

"I dunno....I'm not too fond of small spaces. Are there forests around the mines? I might just check those out while you go spelunking, see if I can find any cute birds. Or maybe those of us with fast fliers could check out the dam?"

"There's some forests not that far away if you'd prefer... Or you could go check out the dam, yeah. As long as you got a pokemon to ride on, you can probably be fast enough to get there and back to the city..?"

"...Ya wanna hear the story they tell to keep us away from there too? This one's about an engineer who fell in one of the turbines while they were running..."

With that, the subject turns to trying to hide the weird cube, how he even got it in the first place, and to a lesser extent everyone seeming to be developing weird powers... As the subject turns to Koa trying to pull the cube into the storage ball however, a familiar dex chime can be heard...

Please do try to refrain from absorbing the literal physical embodiment of all bug power into the storage ball..! :o
Unless you want to risk blowing up half the city in a nuclear explosion..!
Ha ha ha
That is a joke, of course. :)
Still, I'm afraid I have to inform you you have little hope of storing the cube in there. :)
However, I have an alternative plan... Whenever you can. :)
You'll just have to trust me on it. ;)
Take the cube back to the temple. The fairy one, that is. :)

(Unless you guys want to explore what Sparky is saying now, you guys can give me perception and athletics roll to travel towards the mine for now... Izzy is gonna want to go to a nearby forest there I presume? She might be able to get Jeremy and/or Isabella to join her if no one else...)

Haley looks at the janitor. "I ain't stallin'. But I guess I should go anyways, this maze is a way more tame than I was expecting. I mean, this gym has at least one dark pokemon that can use illusions and its sqandered. I was expecting things to be a lot more creative and exciting." Before she leaves, Haley looks at the Janitor and pokes him. "What's yer name?"

Ah, Alex should proooobably get his pokemon healed up before venturing out, I realise. It would be troublesome to go out into the wilderness with two healthy pokemon.
Also gonna swap Gwen out for Dusk again.

"The temple... It's a long ways off, though. Anyone think they can actually get it there quickly? If they think they've found everything of interest there, they're not likely to search the area."

---

"Staying out of caves sounds nice. I've had enough of haunted caves, after the ghost demon thing... I'd go to the lake with you, but my only bird tends to be very stabby, and I can't afford a saddle to keep me on him and in one piece."

"I'm still mentoring, yes. I've sort of burned myself out with teaching pokemon the fancier moves for today - it's not really easy to do for something they don't naturally learn and without a reference to use for teaching them - but tomorrow, maybe.

My characters:
Tugs Tails, the goblin that was sort of a trapper and wears a bear's tail at his neck, for some reason - Lair of the Mountain King (Run by Thinks)
Alex Sparo, A city boy, poor of sight, who has learned to manipulate people and make the most of what he, and others, have - Trinity Isles (Run by Mort)
Mehriv Turajin, a Noble Dragonborn Sorcerer sent from his clan because he wasn't dragony enough. - The Wandering Archipelago (Run by Thinks)

Koa cautiously withdraws his Storage Ball. "O-oh! Is that what this box is?"

"If we wanna take it back there, though, we'd lose a whole day or two depending on how we do it. We could use the spellbook to jump it back, but then we wouldn't be able to use those spells for a whole week...."

As for where Koa is headed, he'll change his mind and head to the lake with the others. He's getting an odd feeling that he could find pokemon on his Dream list maybe he'll find something more worthwhile there. Also, safety in numbers.

"That is indeed what it is. It's very important. I can explain more once we're on the way."

---

Once the group heads out, and is away from people, Alex will share the story of discovering the Overseer's name, and that it will violently lash out at anyone in the area when its name is said, how contact with the Core, a piece of the world's essence, had repelled the Overseer, and that it probably contains an artifact of immense power such as that Team Plasma harnessed, but that it can only be opened by a legendary being of the relevant type."So, whichever core the GodSquad got, that's why they're trying to drill it open. There'll be something powerful within. That's also why I'll trust the Spark just a little, since we've now got reason to believe the Overseer wants to destroy life on our world, and The Spark has reason to work against it with us."

"Oh, and we met Xerneas, the god of life, too. The one Luna's blessed by. Got into an argument with him, probably almost got mauled, stared down unimaginable power like an idiot, made said unimaginable power feel bad about it, so, an average day. He was kind of a jerk. Seems like there's one other person out there with Xerneas' blessing, and whoever it is, the guy'd better be hiding, 'cause it doesn't sound like he's still in that deer's goodbooks."

My characters:
Tugs Tails, the goblin that was sort of a trapper and wears a bear's tail at his neck, for some reason - Lair of the Mountain King (Run by Thinks)
Alex Sparo, A city boy, poor of sight, who has learned to manipulate people and make the most of what he, and others, have - Trinity Isles (Run by Mort)
Mehriv Turajin, a Noble Dragonborn Sorcerer sent from his clan because he wasn't dragony enough. - The Wandering Archipelago (Run by Thinks)

"I'm still mentoring, yes. I've sort of burned myself out with teaching pokemon the fancier moves for today - it's not really easy to do for something they don't naturally learn and without a reference to use for teaching them - but tomorrow, maybe.

"That's fine, there's no rush! We could do it tomorrow morning, maybe? Unless....would you rather focus on training your own Pokemon first?"

------------------

Later, when Alex explains what they went through to get the Bug Core, Izzy is left a little speechless. For about two seconds.

"...wow. Okay, that's a lot. But we had some crazy stuff happen too!"

"Let's see....we went to that old League place too, but didn't find the Plasma lab. We just turned on some sensors for Sparky on the airship, so he could track some weird energy signatures. Then we went to look at the weirdest one, but ran into Pandora on the way. Then we got attacked by the Overseer! Koa got kidnapped because he caught one of the Overseer's kids, so I went into this portal after him and met this cute little guy called Cogs, and he had a magic fountain and showed me all these weird worlds in it. But then I had to go rescue Koa, so I went and beat up the Overseer's engine room while Koa blew himself up and got spat back out of the portal. Drake caught one of the kids too, but then the Overseer decided we were too badass for him so he left - I think that Bruce guy caught one too, that's why he's here. And then we went to the energy signature, and found the tree which the first Pokeball came from, only it was made of stone now so I guess it's not really a tree anymore. And there were some people who said they were from Prometheus' world, where Giratina is kinda their God, and we all looked like demons to them because we weren't from their home. And Prometheus disappeared years ago fighting a demon who called itself the Spark but we don't think it was the same Spark we know, because he doesn't remember that? One of them was Prometheus' wife - she was nice. Oh, and Plasma's main science guy Colress was from that place too, and got here by accident, and was trying use Plasma to get back maybe? He was sort of crazy. Anyway, we convinced them to go home through this portal that they can only open rarely, and then we walked back to the road, and we ended up here!"

Bjorn keeps running, using Mist to conceal himself in from the spider (not sure if Mist can be used that way, if only a blessing), or else sprays the ground behind him with Powder Snow, hoping the icyness and mounds of snow cause the spider to lose traction.

"Uh... yeah, what Izzy said," Koa said, scratching his head. "I guess those Plasma guys and the Godslayers both got their crazy tech from Babylon - that's Giratina's dimension. Prometheus and everyone that comes from there are like crazy smart super people. But they sorta wither away unless they eat that Aura energy stuff, which Giratina makes for 'em. Normal food isn't enough. So they can't last long in our world, except knights like Prometheus who have these swords with a bunch of that energy. And I... guess they can drain it out of people, too?"

My characters:
Tugs Tails, the goblin that was sort of a trapper and wears a bear's tail at his neck, for some reason - Lair of the Mountain King (Run by Thinks)
Alex Sparo, A city boy, poor of sight, who has learned to manipulate people and make the most of what he, and others, have - Trinity Isles (Run by Mort)
Mehriv Turajin, a Noble Dragonborn Sorcerer sent from his clan because he wasn't dragony enough. - The Wandering Archipelago (Run by Thinks)

Several times during the talking Drake makes a small movement as about to say something but gets interrupted by someone else when Alex mentions weird stuff is happening to everyone, because Drake clearly not gotten there yet, except for knowing a lot of weird stuff he didn't think would be relevant just a couple of weeks ago.

"Drake caught one of the kids too, but then the Overseer decided we were too badass for him so he left - I think that Bruce guy caught one too, that's why he's here"

Drake will weakly mumble something not really wanting to interrupt or put too much focus on it.

"He did do something to me, though not sure exactly what before you guys interrupted him..."

My characters:
Tugs Tails, the goblin that was sort of a trapper and wears a bear's tail at his neck, for some reason - Lair of the Mountain King (Run by Thinks)
Alex Sparo, A city boy, poor of sight, who has learned to manipulate people and make the most of what he, and others, have - Trinity Isles (Run by Mort)
Mehriv Turajin, a Noble Dragonborn Sorcerer sent from his clan because he wasn't dragony enough. - The Wandering Archipelago (Run by Thinks)

"But I guess I should go anyways, this maze is a way more tame than I was expecting. I mean, this gym has at least one dark pokemon that can use illusions and its sqandered. I was expecting things to be a lot more creative and exciting."

The guy seems to be silent for... Just a second longer than usual. "I'll pass on the feedback, miss."

"What's yer name?"

"Hm? Oh- Err, Sparrow, miss." the kid says, tipping his hat. His coat feels a bit funny, and he seems a bit weirded out by the poke, but nothing else noteworthy...

(I'll take perception and intuition rolls if you're going further in the maze.)

Izzy, Koa, Bjorn, Drake, Irene

Conversation, for a moment, continues about the subject about the cube... Debating about how it should be returned.

"The temple... It's a long ways off, though. Anyone think they can actually get it there quickly? If they think they've found everything of interest there, they're not likely to search the area."

That is part of the reason I would do it, yes. :)
There's more to it, of course- Remember how it was said that each element has it's own sort of "effects"..? :)
One of the bug type ones has always been it's counter against psychic forces, such as scrying... "Subterfuge", if you will. :)
It's for this reason that the Godslayers likely failed to locate it in the first place..! :o
Considering there's multiple indicators they managed for every other one... :/
Even if they did know by a very rough estimate where that whole facility was located, they still had to hire Tesla to try and find it..! :o
...Oh, I'm sorry, you hadn't figured that out yet? Was that a spoiler? ;)
Ha ha ha

"If we wanna take it back there, though, we'd lose a whole day or two depending on how we do it. We could use the spellbook to jump it back, but then we wouldn't be able to use those spells for a whole week...."

With that part of the conversation done, however, the party soon finds itself splitting up- Intent on heading in two different directions, most seeming interested, but a couple wanting to go to the cave as well... Jeremy and Isabella eventually deciding to go with the latter, as most of the others head back towards the river.

► Show Spoiler

Bruce and Irene can let know still which side they'd want to join.

Koa, Alex, Izzy

The party continues to the river West of the city which is, indeed, not that far all things considered... And with no one really straggling, it's only a moderate half hour later, the trainers find themselves at the large bridge spanning over the artificial channel, the water beneath rushing by deceptively fast... No doubt there's pokemon living in there, but it might be hard to try and catch them here without some kind of fishing rod to pull them up, given the slope... Or at least without a pokemon to go in the fast current below. Izzy does notice a Carvanha down there, likely part of a small school.

They could always move further up or down the river, though. Down river, the channel might eventually offshoot into an actual river, or at least some small little side lakes- From here, it does seem like that might be the case..? Upriver, it's likely not going to become any better, but it does also run through the forest...

Drake

Drake meanwhile, travels towards the mine... And while not exactly unathletic himself, the trip does seem to be just a bit longer than the other group- Not that he has a way of knowing that, of course. Eventually, some dilapidated iron fencing seems to be in front of them, the worn down little road they were following leading to a gate... A big red "NO ENTRY" sign posted on it. It gives Drake and Jeremy a bit of pause for a moment, but Isabella pointedly ignores it- Climbing through a bit of broken fencing on the side.

"Relax, no one's been here in years. Just don't be an idiot and touch anything you're not supposed to."

Isabella's warning would make sense when they were in... A bunch of little shacks still there, likely used to be break rooms and such, though in such disrepair even squatters wouldn't want to live in them. At least, not unless they were desperate- Perhaps they should just stay away from those, just in case... There has at the very least been broken in once upon a time.

That seemed to go for most of the things around there, actually- A bunch of heavy machinery still seemed to remain at site, as if abandoned suddenly, though almost all of them had their engines opened up and all their parts removed... And further ahead was the actual cave entrance- It's surprisingly large, like an actual tunnel, and some lights and pavement are already installed inside... Of course, with no electricity, the tunnels quickly turn to darkness. Darkness in which Drake can swear, for just a second, he can see movement, as if someone, or something moves deeper inside the darkness. It's probably nothing, though... Or it's just pokemon- Like the small family of Aron that seem to be near the entrance.

"Anyone interested in those..? We can probably avoid em if we don't provoke them."

Bjorn

Bjorn turns to run, spraying mist behind him in hopes of keeping the spider of it's back... The large spider lady raises one of it's legs, and could have easily ripped it across his back as he turned to run, or for that matter, easily held pace with him... Though she doesn't, instead leaving only a "Tsk, tsk..." as he escapes from that place...